The "Apple of China" shows off its new $320 flagship with top-tier specs.

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Xiaomi is one of the biggest phone makers in China and is often called the "Apple of China" by the western press. The moniker is well-deserved, as the CEO has a penchant for doing product announcements wearing jeans and a black shirt and using Apple's trademark "One More Thing" surprise at the end of a show.

Today, the company announced the Xiaomi Mi 4, a new version of its flagship smartphone. The spec rundown is a 5-inch 1080p IPS LCD, 2.5Ghz Snapdragon 801 chipset, 3GB RAM, 13MP rear camera, 8MP front camera, and a 3080mAh battery. The real kicker is the price, 1,999 Yuan (about $320) for 16GB of storage, or 2,499 Yuan (about $400) for the 64GB version. The specs are similar to the OnePlus One—a 5.5-inch device for $300—and while the Mi 4 is slightly more expensive, the difference is that you can actually buy the Xiaomi device if you live in China.

And sure enough, Xiaomi is still taking inspiration from its western role model, as the Mi 4 looks like a big iPhone. A segmented metal band with chamfered edges surrounds the phone, and it even uses a similar earpiece design. The rest of the outside is plastic, but for the new version Xiaomi says it has incorporated a stainless steel frame into the device.

The Mi 4 runs Android 4.4.2, but like all Xiaomi devices, it uses the MIUI skin, one of the most heavily customized versions of Android out there. MIUI has an entirely different interface from stock Android, and many areas of it seem inspired by iOS.

While the front looks like an iPhone, the back appears to have a bit of a Samsung influence. One rather unique aspect of the design is the removable back plate, and Xiaomi sells replacements with several different looks.

The 3G version is out in China on July 29, with the LTE version coming out some time in September. Both of these launch dates are for China, and while Xiaomi currently does business in Malaysia, India, and the Philippines, the company hasn't said when the device will launch in those markets. A version with international bands is on the way, too, but we'll have to wait for details on that.

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Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo

54 Reader Comments

Offer this with stock Android (L) and timely updates and I may consider it. But already the capacitive buttons beneath the screen make me think that this won't happen.

I really don't care very much for this or that style of UI. What I care for is timely updates instead of having to cling to some fork and hope for the best.

I'm actually wondering how long it will take Xiaomi and Huawei to wake up and just team up with Google for the western markets. No patents and design patents to fight, just supply Google the drivers and let Google update the bloody things and be done with it.

Xiaomi updates their developer ROM every single week, so I don't think anyone needs to worry about timely updates. I'd say Xiaomi is probably among the best Android manufacturers for supporting their devices with updates.

I think what gets everyone riled up about Apple is their distinctive trademark is a lack of distinctiveness. Thus, they claim they are the only ones that can use clean minimalist design, when they didn't even come up with that themselves.

Only people who have no idea how hard it is to be not distinctive in a good way can be riled up by this.

btw Ars is rather good when making article apple copies other or other copies apple. for example, the article from a while ago about iOS 7 taking inspiration from Android.

Maybe you should come up with a better example .I am failing to see the 3.5" screen, the on screen keyboard, pinch to zoom, real web browser, universal email client, leading edge camera, front camera, etc on the Sony there. Not to mention itunes, which looks absolutely amazing compared to the Sony junkware of the time.

btw Ars is rather good when making article apple copies other or other copies apple. for example, the article from a while ago about iOS 7 taking inspiration from Android.

Maybe you should come up with a better example .I am failing to see the 3.5" screen, the on screen keyboard, pinch to zoom, real web browser, universal email client, leading edge camera, front camera, etc on the Sony there. Not to mention itunes, which looks absolutely amazing compared to the Sony junkware of the time.

It's an interesting comparison. No, it doesn't look anything like a straight copy. But it does remind me of how some recent cars are clear retro callbacks to classic designs (Mustang, Camaro, Beetle and that T-Bird from a while back). Of course, the car companies were recycling their own stuff. If the Sony were actually an ancient Iphone, I could easily believe (based on this pic) a claim that the Iphone 4 had "returned to its roots" for design inspiration. But that's off topic.

On topic: I don't think it's likely, but I'd be super impressed and totes jelly if any of those alternate panels are real wood. And I do remember thinking the Mi 3 was a damn sexy design, and would still prefer it to the Mi 4.

Don't laugh this phone. It is not cheap Chinese fake goods or copycat. Actually its predecessor Mi3 was quite sturdy and well-built smartphone with excellent performance and UI. Its build quality is on far with HTC or even Samsung's in some aspects. It may not so premium phone in brand. But in exterior design and internal performance, it IS no less than a premium class. At least it is very practical and good alternative or even serious contender to Samsung Galaxy, not cheap me-too or fake.Especially in software aspect, I regard this Xiami UI and customization is better engineered than Samsung's bloatware trash. New patches are very timely and frequent.

Yeah, just like in the Samsung trade dress lawsuit, I think you have to be pretty visually impaired to mistake this phone for one of Apple's products... What with the giant MI logo and bottom three buttons...

Yeah, just like in the Samsung trade dress lawsuit, I think you have to be pretty visually impaired to mistake this phone for one of Apple's products... What with the giant MI logo and bottom three buttons...

but, but, but it is a candy bar style phone, and only Apple can make a candy bar phone. Therefore any Candy bar style phone is a rip off of an iphone.

Maybe you should come up with a better example .I am failing to see the 3.5" screen, the on screen keyboard, pinch to zoom, real web browser, universal email client, leading edge camera, front camera, etc on the Sony there. Not to mention itunes, which looks absolutely amazing compared to the Sony junkware of the time.

if thats your argument, then Xiaomi did not copy Apple. Samsung also did not copy apple. They just took design inspiration.[/quote]but in the end Apple win those "rounded corner"

Ron....I'm disappointed. Xiaomi isn't the "Apple of China" any more than Hyundai is the "Mercedes of Korea." Every smartphone story on the goddamned Internet does not have to mention Apple. Apple is not relevant to this story. Part of the reason I read Ars is because it's not bullshit clickbait. Don't reverse that trend.

Come now, this is an American centric Apple loving publication, read by open minded liberals who will not tolerate anyone who thinks differently than they do.

This is just another phone, reminiscent on one way or another of almost any phone released in the last few years. There's a limit to what you can do to differentiate, especially when you are essentially not much more than an assembly operation putting together a phone from commodity parts and software. I'm not offended by it in any way, nor do I see it anything particularly amazing. Some people will enjoy the ticket price savings, others will still want to pay more, whether for the brand, or for unique features that have yet to trickle into commodity. Whatever, it's just a phone.

However, it's not the phone as a product that is mimicking Apple, it's the identity that are portraying for themselves. They are certainly trying to identify themselves in the same way as Apple have done so in the past, they have blatantly stolen things like the Aperture icon in their marketing materials, use practically the same keynote slides and wording in the same font whilst dressed like Jobs etc etc. I keep expecting them to come out with "Boom!" next... Does this offend me? No, not really, take a step back and you can see what they are doing, which is the same as Samsung - try to associate yourself with the top player, try to keep your name in the same sentence as their name. By whatever means, whether just mimicking their presentations (then flat out denying you do this, very publicly, which then does the same thing again..,), or by taking potshots in adverts at your 'competition', they are just making sure that whenever you think of their name, you also think of Apple and you form a subliminal opinion that these are similar products and thus worthy of consideration. It might sell a few phones, but they don't have the ecosystem (Samsung has slightly more in the way of ecosystem with their watches and tablets and software/services) that Apple has, so they won't ever get much above Apple's ankles in terms of true competition, their competition is really with the other assemblers who are less successful in getting their product talked about in the same sentence as Apple.

Remember, it's not like a $300 phone only earns half the profit of a $600 phone. The bill of materials might be in the ball park of $250 for both, so the real comparison is $50 profit against $350 = They might have to sell 7x more products to reap the same reward. It's never going to happen. They are just riding a crest of popular culture references to short term profit and currently doing so better than the rest.

Nice phone for the price to be sure. I'm another one who fails to see much iphone resemblance.

I'm encouraged by the increase in visibility of phones from companies like Xiaomi and Oppo and OnePlus.

Hope they release a quadband version soon. No need to wait for the local mall kiosk to carry unlocked phones as they can be purchased online for a fraction of what one would pay for a more recognizable brand's subsidized flagship through a major carrier. Although one needs to be aware of the frequencies supported by the service provider.